


Apple Pies in May

by Tris10



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Apple Pie, Baking, Childhood Friends, Friendship/Love, M/M, Nekoma, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:53:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26251465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tris10/pseuds/Tris10
Summary: "Kuroo knew that he wasn’t the world’s best baker but he could make an extremely delicious apple pie."Kuroo learnt how to bake apple pies, using them to cheer Kenma up or using them as a peace offering if he'd accidentally made Kenma mad.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Apple Pies in May

Beep-beep-beep  
The oven timer went off and Kuroo rushed into the kitchen. He carefully removed the pie from the oven and set it upon a cooling rack with ease. After switching the oven off he opened a window to allow the breeze outside to help cool the pie down. Once he was happy with the temperature of the pie he placed it into a container on the kitchen counter where it would stay until tomorrow. With that he walked upstairs and got ready for bed. Kuroo knew that he wasn’t the world’s best baker but he could make an extremely delicious apple pie. The first time he had ever attempted to bake an apple pie was still when he was very young.  
\------  
“Mom!” Kuroo yelled as he ran into the house one afternoon.  
“Tetsuro, how many times do I have to tell you not to yell in the house,” his mom scolded him as she walked up to where he was in the kitchen.  
“Sorry mom, but this is important.” He smiled sheepishly, “Can you teach me how to back an apple pie?”  
“Why do you want to back an apple pie?”  
“I made Kenma mad and I want to make it up to him,” Kuroo said while looking at the floor.  
“Did you receive a volleyball into his face again?” his mother asked curious at what had angered the child.  
Kuroo shook his head, “I accidently deleted the saved data for his game.”  
His mother’s eyes widened slightly and she sighed, “Okay then, let’s go.”  
“Where are we going?” Kuroo asked finally looking up.  
“The grocery store to get some apples.”

*

“Make sure that your hands aren’t too warm Tetsuro, you don’t want the butter to melt.”  
“I know mom. I’ve made this like a bazillion times before,” Kuroo answered.  
Within ten minutes he had the pastry done and was getting ready to roll it out.  
“Is Kozume going to join the volleyball team again?” his mother asked as she hovered over her son, ready to give him any advice she deemed necessary.  
“Mmm-hmm,” Kuroo confirmed as he placed the pastry in his mother’s favourite pie dish, the dish that always housed Kenma’s apple pies. “He said he was going to when I asked earlier.”  
“I can’t believe he’s graduating middle school already, you’re both growing up so fast.”  
Kuroo paused what he was doing to give his mom a grin, “You should save that mushy talk for the graduation party.”  
“Yes, yes I know. Concentrate on your pie.”  
Kuroo finished making the pie and left it to cool while he went to the ceremony, stopping by his house on the way to Kenma’s house to pick it up.

*

“What did you do wrong this time?” Yaku asked gesturing to the piece of pie that Kuroo had packed with him that day.  
“Why does everyone assume that I’ve done something wrong when I pack pie for Kenma?” Kuroo sighed exasperatedly.  
Yaku laughed loudly, “That’s usually the case.”  
“That’s not the case this time though,” Kuroo insisted, “he’s been staying up late talking to Hinata lately so I thought that this would help wake him up a bit.”  
Yaku glanced sceptically at his friend as Kuroo shrugged and continued; “Besides we can’t have a good practice unless our setter is somewhat energized.”  
“I suppose you’re right,” Yaku admitted.  
“I’m always right,” Kuroo bragged.  
“We’ll see about that when we get our test scores back.”  
Kuroo laughed at Yaku’s comeback and was about to respond when the bell for the lesson break rang. Kuroo abandoned all thought of his conversation with Yaku, picked up the pie for Kenma and ran out the door towards the second year classrooms. Yaku watched with amusement as he shook his head at his friend’s antics.

*

“Yes I’m at our park and no you can’t refuse,” Kuroo laughed, “I’ll see you soon.”  
He hung up the call with Kenma and leaned back against the park bench he was seated on. Kuroo liked to call the park his and Kenma’s for the sole reason that they had been playing in that specific park since they were kids. It held so many memories of practicing volleyball, running around while dragging Kenma behind him or just sitting on this exact bench watching Kenma play his game. It was fitting that this would be the place he would confess. He wasn’t sure that he should but after learning that Kenma had no interest in Hinata at all after he had helped Hinata and Kageyama get together, nothing was holding Kuroo back from his confession. He had baked an apple pie earlier on in the day but had left it at home, deciding that they could go eat it afterwards together no matter the answer he received from Kenma.  
Half an hour later Kuroo’s phone rang, Kenma’s name lighting the screen. “Did you get distracted playing your game?”  
“Is this Kuroo-san?” an unfamiliar voice asked.  
“Yes, who’s this?”  
“I’m a paramedic, there was an accident and your friend is currently being transported to the nearest hospital, if you could notify his parents and meet us there that would be great.”  
The call was dropped and so did Kuroo’s heart. He ran out of the park and hailed the first taxi he saw. After telling the driver where to go he called Kenma’s mom.  
“Tetsuro dear, how are you?”  
“Hospital,” Kuroo breathed out.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that?”  
“Hospital!” Kuroo yelled as the taxi pulled up right in front of the building. He thrust the money at the driver and nearly fell over in his hurried escape from the cab without waiting for his change.  
“Okay, we’ll meet you there,” Kenma’s mom replied, not understanding the situation but sensing the tensions and terror in the young boys voice.  
Kuroo hung up and looked around quickly, many things blurring together in his attempt at trying to find an ambulance. His eyes eventually settled on one parked in front of the emergency entrance. Pudding coloured hair was all he needed to see before racing off in the very direction of his friend.  
“Kenma!” he shrieked out causing the paramedics and doctors to look his way. One of the paramedics tried to hold him back but Kuroo continued to push past him until he got to Kenma’s side. He followed along the gurney as they rushed Kenma along the hospital halls. Red stained Kenma’s clothes and the other side of his head housed mattered hair that could have fooled anyone into thinking it was dyed to match their school colours. Kuroo’s breath stopped in his throat and his eyes started to mist up. “Kenma?” he spoke timidly.  
Kenma’s eyes opened extremely slowly as if they were lead. “Kuroo,” his voice was raspy and coarse, very unKenma-like.  
“Kenma, you’ll be fine,” Kuroo grabbed his hand, “I’m sorry.”  
Tears fell down his cheeks as a doctor pried their hands apart and sat him down in a waiting area outside the room they took Kenma into. Kuroo held his head in his hands, silent tears making their way down his arms. He didn’t know how long he was sitting like that when he felt a hand on his back, looking up he found himself surrounded by both his and Kenma’s parents.  
“It seems some materials fell off of the building that’s under construction near the house and landed on him while he was walking underneath it,” Kenma’s mother explained as she sat next to him, her hands clasping him, “The doctors are going to work hard at fixing him up for us.”  
Kuroo managed a weak smile for his best friend’s mom.  
Hours passed before they received any information on Kenma’s condition. Eventually a doctor emerged from Kenma’s room. They all looked up at him expectantly.  
“I’m sorry,” he said, “we did everyth...”  
The world around Kuroo stopped, he didn’t hear or see anything else besides the door that separated him from Kenma. He took a step forward only to find a white coated arm stopping him. No, not just stopping but preventing him from seeing Kenma. He slapped the arm aside and continued moving. Hands pulled at him but he fought, eventually finding his voice, “No, Kenma!” he screamed out as he struggled in people’s grasps. “Kenma! Kenma, it’s me Kuroo! You need to come out, I’ve got something to tell you! Kenma!”  
He managed to get to the door and forced his way in. The room smelt of hospital chemicals and something horrid. The smell stung his nose. His eyes landing on the surgery table in the middle of it. Lying on top of the table was a seemingly small body covered in a sheet. Machines that were no longer attached to the body stood to the side. “Kenma!” Kuroo screamed again still attempting to make his way over to the boy that could no longer hear him. Multiple people were holding him back as he screamed himself hoarse. Somewhere along the lines he could taste his tears but that only fuelled his need to see his best friend; his first love. Eventually a second doctor entered the room, Kuroo felt a slight prick and the room faded into nothingness.

*

Kenma’s eyes widened in surprise, “You do?”  
Kuroo nodded shyly, “Since we were kids.”  
A red blush formed on Kenma’s face as he looked at the ground, a bashful smile appearing on his face very slowly. “Me too, I like you too.”  
“Wait, what was that?” Kuroo leaned in with a smirk on his face. He had heard Kenma perfectly fine but he wouldn’t mind hearing it again.  
Kenma looked at Kuroo with exasperation, “Don’t make me say it again.”  
Kuroo smiled widely, “Okay I won’t.” He put his arm around Kenma and lead him out the park. “I have some apple pie waiting for us at home.”  
The two walked out of the park with a comfortable air surrounding them.

Kuroo’s eyes opened and a smile lit his face as he thought of his dream. Within five minutes he was up and dressed. On his way out he grabbed his mother’s pie dish that held an apple pie that he had baked. He walked over to Kenma’s house and opened the door, he had stopped knocking during middle school.  
“Kenma, I brought pie,” Kuroo called out as he took off his shoes and walked in. His eyes settled on the people sitting in the kitchen. Kenma’s mom had started crying and judging by the redness and puffiness of her eyes it wasn’t the first time, his dad looked haggard and unkempt and Kuroo’s parents just stared at him with shocked faces.  
All at once it came crashing back to Kuroo. He dropped the pie dish and it shattered at his bare feet, pieces of glass flying everywhere but Kuroo didn’t register it as a look of dread filled his face.  
“Tetsuro,” his mom called out but it was too late, Kuroo had already turned and run out the house and down the street without stopping to put his shoes on.  
His mother quickly got and while apologising to Kenma’s parents, started picking up the mess on the floor. Kenma’s mother got up and stopped her, “I’ve got this, go after him he needs your help more than this dish does.”

Kuroo’s mother found him sitting in the middle of his park, curled into himself shaking as the sobs raked through his body. “Tetsuro,” she started.  
“It’s all my fault,” he cut her off.  
“No,” she scolded him, “It’s no one’s fault.”  
“It is mom,” he said glancing up at her, the sun reflecting off his tears, “If I hadn’t called him out, if I hadn’t been selfish.”  
She sat down next to him as he continued, “I love him mom, I love him so much and that’s why he died. He’s gone because I loved him and I was selfish enough to want him. I called him out to confess, I could have just walked next door and confessed but I didn’t, I was selfish enough to want to confess in this park.”  
Kuroo then said the thing that he knew would break his mother’s heart, “Mom, it should have been me.”  
Instead of the slap he was expecting, warm arms enveloped him. “No wonder you took it so hard, but sweetie I don’t think Kozume would appreciate you beating yourself up about this either. His parent’s were just telling us about how much he cared for you.”  
At this Kuroo started crying again, his chest ached and he bent over clutching at his shirt. His breaths came out raggard. “The team, Hinata and Akaashi- no one knows yet.”  
“Come,” his mother said helping him up, “let’s go fix up your foot and then we can tell them afterwards.”  
Kuroo looked down at his foot and noticed the big shard of glass that had pierced the top of his foot. He let himself be led away from his park towards a future without a physical Kenma but not without a remembered Kenma.

\------

Kuroo woke up the next day and got ready the same as any other day. However before he walked out the house today he picked up a dish with the apple pie in it. It was still early and so he decided he’d walk this year. Passing a florist he decided to walk in and get some flowers. Inside he bumped into Yamamoto who was choosing some flowers with his daughter.  
Yamamoto greeted Kuroo, “Are you going to Kenma’s parents today?”  
Kuroo nodded, accepting his flowers from the florist after they had wrapped them.  
“How long has it been?”  
“Twelve years,” Kuroo spoke softly, the only indication that Kenma’s death still affected him heavily.  
“Kuroo-san,” Yamamoto’s daughter greeted him excitedly interrupting the two.  
“Morning Kiyo-chan, what are you doing here?”  
“We’re buying flowers for mommy.”  
“That’s nice, is it her birthday?”  
Kiyo nodded before pointing at the dish, “Is that a pie? I didn’t know you baked pies.”  
“Kiyo, you mustn’t be rude,” Yamamoto spoke up, shooting Kuroo an apologetic look.  
Kuroo laughed and waved Yamamoto’s doubt away, before leaving. “I only bake apple pies in May.”


End file.
